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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23764978">Cornered</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/chillydeer/pseuds/chillydeer'>chillydeer</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Humor, Teasing, swamp beasties</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 18:06:16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,421</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23764978</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/chillydeer/pseuds/chillydeer</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Felix Fraldarius is a serious man. Except, as it happens, when it comes to his wife.</p><p>After being away for two weeks, it was all he could do to rush home from Fhirdiad, crawl into bed, and lay up half the night with Annette in his arms murmuring kisses into his neck. But now that their daily routines have realigned, he can resume his other favorite habit: pushing her buttons.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Annette Fantine Dominic/Felix Hugo Fraldarius</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>118</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Cornered</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>You know how Annette thinks he's making fun of her during their supports, but he's really just clueless? Yeah....now he does it on purpose. (It has better results.)</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Morning, the first upon his return home: Felix, newly dressed, pulls aside the drapes at the window to see Annette bent over the flowerbed below, extracting some stray weeds. It’s barely Lone Moon and winter still clings; the sun only just poking through the hedgerow at the back of the yard, not yet risen enough for proper light. But it doesn’t matter. She’s always been his favorite view.</p><p>She’s humming something—a new melody, one of the few she has been experimenting with lately. Soon, he knows she’ll progress to words; first, nonsense, and then verses taking shape around her carefree smile.</p><p>He slides open the window. “I thought it was too early in the season for birds,” he calls. She whips her head around.</p><p>“Felix!” </p><p>The sound is a chirp in itself. Her eyes narrow, and she unfurls her bottom lip in the half-pout he so loves to see on her. </p><p>Felix Fraldarius is a serious man. Except, as it happens, when it comes to his wife. </p><p>When the whole of his day is spent dealing with running a duchy he didn’t want, or traveling between the capital and territories north and south to patch together a newborn nation, it’s easy to let the weight of things crush him. On good days, the work is boring. On the worst, it’s ripping off the gauze of wounds from years of war.</p><p>Annette, on the other hand, is a shoot that sprouts through the frozen ground, no matter how many winters life throws her way. And like a vine growing toward the sun, Felix has come to rely on her to get out of bed each morning.</p><p>He’s missed her. Dearly.</p><p>It was all he could do to rush home from Fhirdiad, crawl into bed, and lay up half the night with Annette in his arms murmuring kisses into his neck. But now that their daily routines have realigned, he can resume his other favorite habit: pushing her buttons.</p><p>An accidental discovery made at the Academy, he supposes—reaching out in friendship to the bright and bubbly mage led to broken flower pots, toppled bookshelves, and accusations of evil thrown in his face. Where most other students had left him alone, Annette had marched straight through his walls and prodded her (adorable) angry fingertip at his heart. </p><p>Years later, he’s learned that certain comments from him, with a slight adjustment in tone, result in a very different, much more enjoyable outcome. He just has to be patient.</p><p> </p><p>~</p><p> </p><p>Some time after breakfast, Felix nips down to the kitchen for another snack, only to find Annette rolling out dough for a loaf of braided rosemary bread. He smiles to himself; with how sensitive she is about her baking, it will be easy to goad her. </p><p>“Has one of the undercooks taken sick again?” he asks, sliding a hand along the countertop. </p><p>“Oh, Felix, hello!” Annette smiles at him over her shoulder. Her apron is absolutely coated in flour. “No, they’re off duty for the moment. I’ve been practicing this recipe, and I wanted to whip up some bread for this afternoon.”</p><p>She grunts and throws her whole weight into the dough as she kneads. Felix trails around to her other side, where some strands of dough have already been braided into a beautiful knot with sprigs of herbs folded inside. He pokes at one of the ends. </p><p>“This one looks nice and...lumpy,” he says. </p><p>“Lumpy?! What are you—” She spins in a cloud of flour and peers at the waiting loaf, and then at Felix, who feigns innocence. “Felix, it’s a <em> braid</em>, it’s supposed to have bumps! Do not scare me like that!”</p><p>He raises a hand. “I never implied it was bad.” But Annette glares at him. </p><p>“Go on,” she says after a moment. “If you’re just going to be a nuisance, shoo!”<br/><br/>“And this is what you say to your husband who’s been away for weeks?” <br/><br/>“Out!” She puts a hand on his chest and shoves him away from the counter. He’s left with a faint white handprint on his shirt and a grin threatening to spill over.</p><p>But her plan is foiled by the arrival of the housekeeper. “Ah, my lord and lady,” she greets them with a short bow of her head. “I’ve been meaning to find you. We’ve had some incidents these past weeks of some food going missing from the storehouse, fruit and the like. I’ve already asked all the staff about it—turned up nothing, mind you—but I was wondering if you’d like us to question them again?”</p><p>Annette frowns. “I haven’t noticed anything missing, and the goddess knows I’m down here often enough…” </p><p>Her eyes widen and she peeks at Felix, who simultaneously remembers the peaches he’d asked her to steal for him in the middle of the night recently. Not to mention the stash of snacks she hoards under the bed.</p><p>“No, there’s no need to bother the staff again,” he affirms. “It’s probably something else.” </p><p>He flicks his gaze over the housekeeper’s shoulder: Annette’s eyes have not left him, and her cheeks are a warning shade of pink. But he’s not about to pass up another opportunity dropped in his lap. </p><p>Felix pretends to consider. “It might be…a small woodland creature. One of those tawny squirrels, or a chipmunk.” </p><p>Annette is now glaring and making discreet throat-slitting motions with her hand. </p><p>“A woodland creature?” </p><p>“Do not listen to him,” Annette butts in. “He knows very well that no <em> creatures </em> ever get into the pantry.”</p><p>The housekeeper glances between the two of them. “If it’s all the same, your Grace, I’ll have the staff keep a lookout.”</p><p>Felix nods. “Be careful, I’ve heard they can be dangerous when cornered.”</p><p>Annette lets out an affronted squeak.</p><p> </p><p>~</p><p> </p><p>He’s given another chance during a routine meeting in the manor foyer with the captains of the guard. They speak of the usual things—a spot of bad weather on the roads, bandits taking advantage of the situation, other business that occurred while Felix was away.</p><p>It’s when they’re discussing some disturbances around the local farmland that Annette walks past. </p><p>“...mostly crop rows and gardens disturbed, occasionally we’ve had reports of injured livestock but nothing too serious,” one of the knights is saying. “It sounds like bears to me, sir, probably out of hibernation early.” </p><p>“Hmm.” Felix follows Annette’s progress up the stairs, and an idea strikes him all at once. “Annette?” he calls.</p><p>“Yes? Oh, sorry, hold on.” </p><p>She pivots and steps slowly down again, balancing a stack of books.</p><p>“We could use your input on a matter of local safety.” Felix turns back to the captain. “My wife has some experience with bears, you see. As well as swamp beasties.”</p><p>He can feel Annette tense beside him, nearly dropping the books, and fights the urge to look at her. </p><p>“Swamp beasties, sir?”</p><p>“Yes. Large creatures that frequent the marshland. Perhaps they have been wandering too close to the farms lately.” He looks at Annette. “What do you think, should we send soldiers out to the swamp to weed out the threat?”</p><p>Annette, color rising, looks askance at Felix before replying to the captain directly. “His Grace is <em> greatly exaggerating </em> my knowledge in these matters, but extra patrols probably wouldn’t hurt.”</p><p>Felix nods at the soldiers. “Well then. You heard her.”</p><p>They snap to attention. “Right away, my lord!”</p><p>As the guards exit, Annette turns her beautiful, flushed face back to Felix. “First a chipmunk, and now swamp beasties. Really? <em> Really?</em>” </p><p>He raises an eyebrow. “I don’t know what you mean. Both are serious threats.”</p><p>“You,” she hisses, “had better watch yourself, <em> Felix Hugo</em>.” He wills his face to remain impassive. “I know where you sleep.”</p><p>Felix knows this. And he’s patient enough to wait until they get there. </p><p>Most days.</p><p>“Hm, are you suggesting we’re in danger here as well? Should we have guards man the hallways during the night?” His voice dips lower. “Or can I count on you to protect me from the beasties?”</p><p>Annette leans in until they’re nearly touching and says through gritted teeth, “Thin. Ice.” </p><p>She strolls out of the room, and Felix watches her walk away with immense satisfaction. He may be on thin ice, but she’s the one on his hook now.</p><p> </p><p>~</p><p> </p><p>(Later on, when she corners him in his private study, straddling his lap and tugging off his jacket and shirt with eager hands, Felix very gladly takes his comeuppance. It’s only what he deserves, after all.)</p><p>
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  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This was just a quick challenge to myself to write something under 2,000 words. I decided to write Felannie because why not. Love these kids. </p><p>Tweet me @imachillydeer!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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